To present the latest security technologies and solutions to Hong Kong companies, the Information Security Showcase 2004, organized by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC), was opened in Hong Kong Wednesday.

Under the theme of "Information Security: from Detection to Prevention," the three-day event comprises 39 seminars and an exhibition covering cryptography, public key infrastructure, firewall technology, intrusion detection, bandwidth management, content security, content filtering and anti-virus technology.

Speaking at the ceremony, Executive Director of HKPC K K Yeung said, "In an economy that relies increasingly on the smooth and reliable flow of information through computer networks, information security has become a prerequisite of business operation. However, this development has also made our businesses increasingly vulnerable to criminal activities."

He said, the rate of computer crimes in Hong Kong has climbed again in 2003 after a lull of two years. According to figures fromHong Kong Police Force, 588 reports were recorded in 2003, compared to 272 reports in 2002. At the same time, a number of high-profile viruses have been making their rounds since June 2002.

Commenting on the work of the Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Co-ordinate Center (HKCERT), established by HKPC with funding support from the Innovation and Technology Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government in 2001 to help local enterprises and Internet users address information security issues, Yeung said, the HKCERT's figures demonstrate thatit is fulfilling an extremely useful function.

Over the past year, the HKCERT received 3,077 incident reports,6.7 times the figure of the previous year. To date, over 7,000 companies and individuals have registered as subscribers.

Source: Xinhua